1998

1998

In this year, one of the cars of the cliff lift to the West Cliff beach was de-commissioned, leaving only one car in use. Also in 1998, the Fitness Machine opened at 25 Silver Street, in the premises of what was Walkers Garage, having been associated with the Walker family since at least 1911. The shop unit in the same building stood empty for a number of years to come and around 2010 it became “Sugar Shack”, selling old fashioned sweets and cakes. In January of this year, Beavers opened a new store in Windsor Terrace near the bus station, to run alongside their store at Stakesby. Also in this year, Caedmon School had a cross installed near the main entrance to the school. This was made of stone and was made to the design of the caedmon cross. Also in January, items were taken from the Oak Tree Pub by Master Care Contractors. Also, the Wellington Pub on Wellington Road was re-open after a £22,000 refurbishment, which saw new upholstery & new carpets. Moving further afield to Sleights, but still in January, a Pedestrian Crossing was installed in Coach Road, Sleights, near the shops, which recently saw Spar move into the formerly privately-owned Central Stores. The crossing was a 'Puffin Crossing' type, which meant that there was no flashing amber state & that sensors were used to know if there was anyone waiting to cross the road after pressing the button. It also gave slower, less-able people more time to cross the road by changing the traffic lights back to red if there was still people on the crossing. A 10-yard stretch of a 200 year old Elm hedge was cut down between the car park and the road, to allow motorists to see the car park. The kerbs near bus lay-by were re-laid and bollards installed around the crossing. The full project was complete by September.

Left: Fitness Machine with Sugar Shack next to it, opening some years later; Right: Sleights' Puffin Crossing

In February, Chunky Mill Clothes Shop on the old part of Church Street re-opened after a 2-week close for painting. Also in February, work on altering the old Post Office building in Baxtergate was started, which included demolishing all but the facade and extending towards New Quay Road with 2 floors for the Baxtergate side, using upstairs for storage. Yorkshire Trading Company, who moved into the former Co-op building on Wellington Road in 1997, moved in here in June of this year. Ladbrokes also moved into the old Collier's Hardware shop in New Quay Road, moving from Baxtergate. Also in February, Tate Hill was given a face-lift, with the steps being painted and railings installed, costing £9,500. Moving away from town, to the Castle Park area, residents had to find £177,000 to meet the cost of adopting the roads in the area & having them improved. These included; Westbourne Avenue, Westbourne Grove & The Avenue.

In March, all post boxes and businesses in the area were given bar codes, to enable faster and easier sorting of mail. Also in this month, the Swing Bridge was closed for 24 hours to make repairs to the track on the East side. Shuttle buses & taxis were put on but there was also roadwork's on the new bridge at the same time, which caused tail-backs.

In April, the owner of Bagdale Hall, John Cattaneo, had finished re-developing the former Princess House, for use by the hotel to provide beds for 60 more people. The building, on Spring Hill, was built around 1797, known as Lobster Hall. It then became Spring Hill School in 1834 until 1907, when it became the Liberal, until 1939, when it became the T.A. Drill Hall & Rifle Range, before changing to the Princess Social Club in 1971, until 1986. At this time it was re-named Princess House and from then until this year, the building was used by Coverdale's Catering business & a picture-framing business. The building work was undertaken by Hurrell Builders. Also in April, fibre optic cabling was being laid, which would carry telephone calls and cable TV, from Hawsker and made its way to Prospect Hill and towards Guisborough. The North-Eastern Co-op introduced a new dividend card, where shoppers could earn points against their shopping, which could then be claimed back later and spent in-store. Work on St Hilda's Church was undertaken, which included external pointing to the walls, replacing worn stonework & renovating the guttering & lightning conductor. In Sleights, the passing place in Birch Avenue had a white line painted along both sides of the road and cars had been issued with tickets for parking on it, who before used to park there for short periods of time. Jewson's took over Harcros in Fairfield Way, with a refurbished showroom. The old Ford Garage in Silver Street was partly changed, as part of it was used as a second-hand book store. Squarebox Ltd bought the Working Men's Club, giving it a major renovation, including a new roof. Also in April, Whitby Town F.C. won the Northern Premier League First Division Championship.

Birch Avenue, Sleights, passing place with the markings first painted in this year, prior to this, only 1 'Keep Clear' existed on the opposite side

On 1st May, St Ninian's Church in Baxtergate could no longer hold Church of England Services, but it would continue to hold services. Also in Baxtergate, Aird Gordon antique shop had am entrance was added to make for separate access for the living quarters above. Also around this time, 2 houses on Park Terrace, which collapsed in 1992, were re-built as 2 different houses, one 2 bed roomed and one 3 storied, 3 bed roomed. 3 weeks later, on 22nd May, Burberry's Factory closed in the Market Place after been in the town since 1973, after buying out Town Textiles, which had served the town for over 30 years before that. Around this time also, a hostel for the single, homeless closed on Chubb Hill, which had been open for over 5 years. Also, at 2 North Road, a shop and flat was converted into 2 residential units. May also saw the end of an era for the Oak Tree pub, which was demolished in this month after a long battle to save the pub failed. The building was said to be in a bad state of repair and PLC Ltd was the company involved in building a new housing development. The pub was once a house, owned by the shipping family the Turnbull's. Also on the building front, a house in Stainsacre was being built and causing some anger as to the access to the old railway line.

Burberry's Factory closed & a last view of the Oak Tree pub as it was being demolished

In June, the Customs Offices moved from the second floor Custom House at the bottom of Golden Lion Bank, which they moved into in 1972. Midlands Bank moved with the times, extending their opening times by opening on Saturday's 9:30am until 12:30pm. Also in June, the foundation stone was laid for the new Roman Catholic Church in Eskdaleside, Sleights, after the old, 'temporary', wooden Church, which had stood for 50 years, had been demolished. The new Martyrs Church would be able to seat 100 people. The church was complete by November.

Sleights R.C. Church on the site of the old, wooden one, Eskdaleside

In July, houses at Hawsker were given the go-ahead, after battling with planning since 1990. The Whitby Town F.C. manager, Harry Dunn was given a brand new car, courtesy of Harrison's Garage. The Rover 400SDi would enable him to scout more games around the area. In August, work started on a £1.2M re-build of the coliseum by Network as a resource centre for the whole community. Also in August, work on Lythe's St. Oswald's Church was started, which included re-pointing the spire and replacing the iron cross on top of it with a steel one. A grant from Yorventure made the work possible.
Whitby Town F.C. had a new stand built on the site of the old 'Scratching Shed' at the East side of the ground. The new stand also provided 100 seats, as well as standing areas, constructed by Dock End Engineering and was complete by the start of the new season in August. Around this time also, a new perimeter wall was erected behind the Upgang Lane end goal, as well as replacing the netting above. The wall replaced boarding and railings. Also in August, the former Burberry's Factory, re-opened after being bought by Brompton Clothing, and former Burberry Staff were given first refusal of the jobs. Also, Whitby Strand Bench would disappear from Whitby Magistrates Court, in a County-wide scheme. Also in August, the taxi rank at Dock End was temporarily moved to Langborne road by the Co-op, in prepartion for Yorkshire Water to work on the area for the new pumping station. Work got underway around this time on the Broomfield Farm treatment plant for Yorkshire Water.

Ready for the new school year, 8 C.C.T.V. cameras were installed at Whitby Community College. Caedmon School erected a replica Caedmon Cross near the entrance to the school, 100 years after the original cross was erected on the East Cliff.
The Abbey Headland project's 2nd phase was getting underway, which would see the old banqueting hall become a visitor centre & museum, and Abbey Lodge transformed into toilets. Phase 1 of the project was the car park & new entrance, the former having been completed early the previous year. Also in September, but moving slightly further afield, to Ugthorpe, a 4 million litre reservoir was in the final stages of development. The reservoir, near to the A171, was to be 4 times the capacity of the original one, and would receive water, pumped from Sneaton, in a newly constructed pipe, and would then be available for Whitby District. Also in September, Whitby Hospital was granted permission to put an antennae on its roof, to enable it to page any of the emergency services in the area. Also around this time, new gardens were created for Spinaker Lodge patients, thanks to £800 raised on a pub crawl.

In October, Network moved into the former Swinton's offices in Station Square from The Mission, and also their administrative offices from Well Close Sqaure also moved in. Also in October, an old cement mill in Sandsend was to be saved by Rural Buildings Preservation Trust, after falling into a bad state of repair after the decline of the industry in the 1930's. Church Street car park was dug up for Yorkshire Water's works on the town's sewerage system, which unearthed an old dry dock. In January of 1999, work on the same area found an archway from a bridge, believed to have dated from around 1700. Also around this time, a sewer collapsed in Baxtergate, near St. Ninians Church, which lead to repair contractors rupturing an electricity cable and cutting of Baxtergate's electricity supply. At the end of November, the first steam train for 25 years steamed into Whitby, work started on the Coliseum by S.W.W. Construction of Redcar. In December 1998, Harbour Port Services building was demolished as part of the work by Yorkshire Water. Also in this year, the path leading from New Way Ghaut to the harbour was re-paved. Also towards the end of this year, Mr & Mrs Woodcock, who ran Maximum Security Services, from a portable building in Bog Hall wanted to turn the building into a bungalow for private residence, which they had started to clad the outside with bricks over a period of time, & build a house next to it on the former car park.

Left: The site of the unearthed dry dock; Right: The archway of an old bridge can be clearly seen in this photo